Boardroom Governance with Evan Epstein

Peter Gleason: "We Look at Board Directorships as a Profession with Accountability and Expectations."


Listen Later

0:00 -- Intro.

1:31 -- Start of interview.

1:57 -- Peter's "origin story"

2:40 -- His career prior to NACD, including at Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS).  Peter joined NACD in 2000.

4:52 -- On the origin and mission of the National Association of Corporate Directors (NACD). Founded in 1977 by John Nash. Today the organization has grown to 23,000+ members. 

7:02 -- About the NACD Directorship Certification (created three years ago). About 2,800 candidates have registered, and about ~1,100 have graduated with the certification.

10:38 -- On the evolution of corporate governance in the last 30 years from his vantage point. “Everything has changed [about boards] – it used to be more of an honorary position, we look it now as a profession with accountability and expectations.” The precedent of the ISS corporate governance quotient (CGQ).

14:36 -- About NACD’s Future of the American Board Report: A Framework for Governing into the Future. 

20:07 -- On NACD's Summit 2022 and lessons from 2022 from a corporate governance perspective. The impact of the pandemic and getting back to in-person events.

24:29 -- About NACD's 20 chapters throughout the US. Mostly in "NFL cities."

27:53 -- On ESG and the anti-ESG trend and the politicization of corporation governance.

30:30 -- On Institutional Investors passing-through voting power to beneficial owners, retail investors and the Universal Proxy Rule. A revolution in shareholder democracy?

41:01 -- On the increasing influence of private markets and its corporate governance implications. "From NACD's 23,000 members, about 8,000 are directors of private companies." There is a lot of informationsharing between public and private company directors.

43:49 -- On the challenges of founder-led private companies. The case of FTX.

47:20 -- On dual-class share structures (supermajority voting structures). "The NACD doesn't have an official position." The example of Meta and Mark Zuckerberg. On the role of the board in non-profits. "I always recommend to go get a few independent directors for boards, because they will tell you what they are thinking (unvarnished opinions) but you have to listen to their independent advice."

52:10 -- Focus on social issues (pressure on CEOs speaking out). The framework that CEOs and boards must use to communicate their positions.

55:39 - The books that have greatly influenced his life: 

  1. Good to Great, by Jim Collins (2001)
  2. To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee (1960)
  3. The Industries of the Future, by Alec Ross (2016)

57:17 - His mentors, and what he learned from them. 

  1. His parents.
  2. Ken Daly, former CEO of NACD from 2007-2017.
  3. Ira Millstein

59:32 -  Quotes he thinks of often or live his life by. 

  1. "If at first you don't succeed, try, try again." (from his parents)
  2. "It ain't about how hard you hit. It's about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward." Rocky Balboa.
  3. "Man in the Arena" by Teddy Roosevelt (1910).

1:00:59 - An unusual habit or an absurd thing that he loves: he watches TV to unwind (noise in the background).

1:01:52 - The living person he most admires: his mother and his wife.

Peter Gleason is the President and CEO of the National Association of Corporate Directors (NACD).

__

 You can follow the NACD on social media at:

Twitter: https://twitter.com/NACD

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/national-association-of-corporate-directors/

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/NACDVideos1

__

 You can follow Evan on social media at:

Twitter: @evanepstein

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/epsteinevan/ 

Substack: https://evanepstein.substack.com/

__

Music/Soundtrack (found via Free Music Archive): Seeing The Future by Dexter Britain is licensed under a Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License

You can follow Evan on social media at:

X: @evanepstein

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/epsteinevan/ 

Substack: https://evanepstein.substack.com/

__

To support this podcast you can join as a subscriber of the Boardroom Governance Newsletter at https://evanepstein.substack.com/

__

Music/Soundtrack (found via Free Music Archive): Seeing The Future by Dexter Britain is licensed under a Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License

...more
View all episodesView all episodes
Download on the App Store

Boardroom Governance with Evan EpsteinBy Evan Epstein

  • 4.8
  • 4.8
  • 4.8
  • 4.8
  • 4.8

4.8

42 ratings


More shows like Boardroom Governance with Evan Epstein

View all
Economist Podcasts by The Economist

Economist Podcasts

4,182 Listeners

Exchanges by Goldman Sachs

Exchanges

976 Listeners

The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch by Harry Stebbings

The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch

536 Listeners

WSJ What’s News by The Wall Street Journal

WSJ What’s News

4,358 Listeners

The McKinsey Podcast by McKinsey & Company

The McKinsey Podcast

392 Listeners

WSJ Tech News Briefing by The Wall Street Journal

WSJ Tech News Briefing

1,643 Listeners

a16z Podcast by Andreessen Horowitz

a16z Podcast

1,102 Listeners

HBR IdeaCast by Harvard Business Review

HBR IdeaCast

181 Listeners

M&A Science by Kison Patel

M&A Science

135 Listeners

Capital Allocators – Inside the Institutional Investment Industry by Ted Seides – Allocator and Asset Management Expert

Capital Allocators – Inside the Institutional Investment Industry

798 Listeners

Masters of Scale by WaitWhat

Masters of Scale

3,989 Listeners

Inside the Strategy Room by McKinsey & Company

Inside the Strategy Room

169 Listeners

The Journal. by The Wall Street Journal & Spotify Studios

The Journal.

6,072 Listeners

All Things Sustainable by S&P Global

All Things Sustainable

63 Listeners

The Markets by Goldman Sachs

The Markets

75 Listeners